Google has made a major change in leadership. Indian-origin Prabhakar Raghavan has become the company’s new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Google is moving ahead rapidly in the field of AI and is restructuring the team. Raghavan’s appointment is part of this exercise. In this field, Google faces competition from big tech giants like Microsoft. Let’s look at Raghavan’s career and achievements so far.
The most influential person in the world of search algorithms
Raghavan is known as a world-class computer scientist. He has over 20 years of research on algorithms, over 100 research papers, and more than 20 patents.
Joined 12 years ago, handled big units like Google Search
He joined Google 12 years ago. As a senior vice president, he worked in important divisions like Google Search, Assistant, Ads, Commerce and Payments products. The company’s major revenue comes from here.
They were close to starting a search engine company in the 1990s
Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google in 1998. Raghavan had thought of setting up a company like Google even before this. In the 1990s, he had prepared a blueprint to set up a company on the concept of a search engine with students at Stanford University, but he joined Yahoo.
Google AI features like Smart Reply and Smart Compose to G Suite
He has been the vice president of Google Apps and Cloud Division. Under his leadership, Google’s Apps business reached new heights. He took both Gmail and Drive forward. Introduced many machine intelligence features in G Suite, including Smart Reply, Smart Compose, and Drive Quick Access.
Recognition like Google CEO, an annual package of Rs 300 crore
He is seen as the ‘CEO of the company’. He is considered one of the trusted people of Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Last year, he received Rs 300 crore as salary and stock. He is among the highest-paid people in Google.
Schooling in Bhopal and from IIT Madras
Raghavan studied in Bhopal, Chennai and Manchester. He did his schooling at Campion School, Bhopal and electrical engineering from IIT Madras. In some ways, Raghavan and Pichai are similar. Both are South Indians. Both have studied at IIT Madras. Raghavan has done PhD from UC Berkeley. However, Pichai focused on studying management.
AI is useful for everything from easing traffic to fighting forest fires
Prabhakar Raghavan: From easing traffic to fighting forest fires, AI is extremely useful. It has the potential to bring about change along with bringing transparency in the functioning of governments. It can also make a big contribution to saving the environment.
